How We Save on SirusXM Radio Subscription

We wanted to share with you how we save on SirusXM radio subscription services, in case you would like to keep a few extra dollars in your pocket.

When we first purchased our 2015 Chevy Captiva two years ago (it was a used vehicle, but new to us) it came with a trial subscription for SirusXM radio. Until this vehicle we had never owned a car that had the service although we did have family members that used SirusXM. We figured since it was a free trial we would give it a shot.

Why we like SirusXM radio

It turns out, we really liked the service for a few reasons:

• Commercial free radio – once you are able to skip all the repetitive commercials that local radio stations air you realize just how annoying they are
• Consistent radio channels – we like to go on road trips within the state of Michigan as well as beyond and it is a pain to have to find a new radio station as you travel from one area to another. With SirusXM radio you can keep the same channel tuned in wherever you travel to.
• Choice – not only do we like to listen to music but we are also big sports fans as well. SirusXM has a big variety of dedicated sports channels that allowed us to listen to our favorite professional and college teams while we were traveling. They also have several comedy channels that are entertaining for a change of pace as you hit the road.

What we didn’t like

What we didn’t like was the monthly fee. We are pretty frugal people, but we also don’t mind paying what we think is a reasonable price for something we enjoy.

As the free trial was coming close to expiring we were contacted by SirusXM radio several times by mail and by phone. This was kind of annoying, so be warned that they do take a fairly aggressive approach to maintaining their customers. The rates we were quoted was around $20 per month; that was way more than we would even consider paying for the service and we let them know we wouldn’t be interested in continuing. They came back with a couple different suggestions but they continued to hover between $11 and $20 per month; we said we were not interested and were connected to another agent to cancel.

The other agent greeted us on the phone and summarized our account and verified the reason we were cancelling was due to price. We agreed and were again placed on a quick hold. The agent returned offering us a special offer, $34-ish for a 6 month period. That comes out to less than $6 per month and we were comfortable with that so we subscribed.

When the 6 month timeframe was close to ending we called again to investigate options and went through nearly the same process. In the end, we were given another 6 month $34 ish subscription.

The current situation

Fast forward to today, when we called to cancel our membership that is set to auto renew on the 10th. The first agent went over options and had me on hold twice as he attempted to secure a low rate. When he returned with rates in the $10 price range per month we said we’d just like to cancel. He forwarded our call to another person and the scenario above repeated itself. We are now subscribed again for another 6 month term for $34.10.

We’ve had luck before negotiating a lower price to save on cable, so this isn’t shocking to us. It is however valuable information that we wanted you to have in your arsenal of money saving tools in case you are a SirusXM subscriber.

Update 4/8/18:  We just renewed again for another 6 months at $33.